Okayama

is the capital city of Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of Japan. The Okayama metropolitan area, centered around the city, has the largest urban employment zone in the Chugoku region of western Japan. The city was founded on June 1, 1889. , the city has an estimated population of 700,940 and a population density of 890 people per km2. The total area is .

type of Japanese festival

1582 siege of a castle in Japan

Kurozumikyō (黒住教, ) is a Shinto-based Japanese new religion founded in Okayama during the 19th century. In 1814, the religion's founder, Munetada Kurozumi (黒住宗忠), claimed to have a divine union with Amaterasu, goddess of the sun and chief kami in the Shinto pantheon. The religion is characterized by its daily worship of the sun at sunrise, called nippai (日拝). Kurozumikyō only worships the sun as its primary deity, a similarity also found in the Ancient Egyptian religion Atenism. Kurozumikyō believes that all kami (spirits) are the manifestations of a single supreme deity, namely Amaterasu.

Shinto shrine in Kita-ku, Okayama, Japan